Over Here! An Exhibition of Patriotic World War I Posters

THE image of a fierce woman, wearing the American flag around her shoulders and carrying a sword and shield, greets visitors to an exhibition at the Cold Spring Harbor Library and Environmental Center. She appears to be leading a row of soldiers, outlined against a glowing red sky, into battle. In fact, she’s urging viewers to finance American forces fighting in Europe. “For Victory, Buy More Bonds,” the exhortation beneath her reads.

The poster on which the image appears is part of “Over the Top: American Posters From World War I,” a collection of artworks made from 1917 through 1919 by famous illustrators of the time — like John Scott Williams, who created “For Victory” — to support the sale of war bonds and war stamps to American citizens. Along with 20 other rousing posters, it is on loan to the library by Thomas L. Pulling, 72, a resident of Oyster Bay, and his son Edward. Thomas Pulling’s grandfather, R. C. Leffingwell, was the assistant secretary of the Treasury who commissioned the artists and organized the nation’s fund-raising efforts.

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A work by John Scott Williams is one of 21 World War I posters owned by Thomas L. Pulling on display at the Cold Spring Harbor Library.Credit
Kathy Kmonicek for The New York Times

“I want them to be seen by people,” the elder Mr. Pulling, a retired managing director of Citigroup, said during a recent visit to the library. “They’re too important to be locked up.”

He first came upon the posters, he said, 30 or 40 years ago, in a little-used closet in his home, which had previously belonged to his parents. They were folded and glued into a kind of scrapbook. “I thought, ‘Holy, schmoly,’ ” he said. “The book was crumbling around the edges. I unfolded one of the pages, and out popped these gorgeous colors.” He learned that the book had been presented to his grandfather, a lawyer who later became chairman of J. P. Morgan & Company, when he left the Treasury Department.

Mr. Pulling revisited the book on occasion, he said, and eventually showed it to his son Edward, who works for J. P. Morgan Chase in Hong Kong. The younger Mr. Pulling agreed that the posters should be seen by the public and became their co-owner and ultimately the co-lender for exhibitions.

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Thomas L. Pulling of Oyster Bay with “Joan of Arc Saved France,” a 1918 poster by William Haskell Coffin, on view at the Cold Spring Harbor Library.Credit
Kathy Kmonicek for The New York Times

Mr. Pulling said more than 60 posters were restored in a process that included ungluing them and removing the creases. A group of more than 40 posters was exhibited at the Smithsonian in 2007, then at the Rockwell Museum in 2008. Last year, the Rockwell Museum organized a show of the posters on Long Island at the Hillwood Art Museum at C. W. Post College in Brookville, where Mr. Pulling is a trustee. He is also chairman of the Rockwell Museum’s board, having joined it in 2006.

In the Cold Spring Harbor Library, where the downstairs art gallery consists of a winding corridor and a round meeting room, there was room for only 21 posters. Linda Swanson, the librarian who curated the exhibition, said she eliminated some near-duplicates and after speaking with school administrators, kept those that seemed most relevant to curriculums.

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A work by Joseph C. Leyendecker.Credit
Courtesy of Thomas L. Pulling and Edward L. Pulling

Ms. Swanson also added two nonposter sections. One, “A Camp Upton Soldier,” is a display of papers, photos, a uniform, a gas mask and other paraphernalia that belonged to a soldier stationed at the camp, now part of Brookhaven National Laboratory; the material was lent by Paul Infranco, a teacher at Longwood Junior High School in Middle Island. The other, “World War I in Miniature,” is a trench warfare diorama in a case on the first floor, lent by Richard Schuster, a local resident.

“This is a more pleasant way of learning about a part of American history than reading about it in a textbook,” Mr. Pulling said. He added that he was delighted to lend the posters when Helen Crosson, the library’s director, whom he has known socially for many years, asked about them, because he wanted students and others to view them.

A poster by James Montgomery Flagg.Credit
Courtesy of Thomas L. Pulling and Edward L. Pulling

Another poster, by William Haskell Coffin, urged women to buy stamps with an illustration of an armor-clad young woman against a deep blue background looking at the viewer as she hoists a sword, and the declaration “Joan of Arc Saved France.” (Mr. Pulling said he had another copy of this one, a favorite, in his home.)

“These posters were printed out by the thousands,” Mr. Pulling said. “They were in movie houses, storefronts, bookstores, train stations, wherever people congregated.” Every few weeks, he said, a new poster would be issued and the old one torn down and probably tossed in the trash. There were four rounds of Liberty Loans, as the bond issues were called, and one more after the war ended, called a Victory Loan. The stamps and bonds raised about two-thirds of the cost of the war, which was more than $30 billion, according to a brochure available at the exhibition.

Besides showing the posters and memorabilia, the library is presenting related films and lectures. “Paths of Glory,” a 1957 Stanley Kubrick film about World War I, will be screened at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 11, with a lecture by Jim Knusch of Port Jefferson, a film historian. On Tuesday, Franklin Hill Perrell, executive director of the Roslyn Landmark Society and an art historian, will speak at 7:30 p.m. on “America to the Rescue: A Cavalcade of World War I Posters.”

After the exhibition closes, Mr. Pulling said, the posters will be returned to light-free storage for several months to help preserve their colors. “They were sleeping for 80 years,” from 1920 to 2000, he said. “Now they need to rest again.”

“Over the Top: American Posters from World War I,” a Norman Rockwell Museum traveling exhibition at the Cold Spring Harbor Library and Environmental Center, 95 Harbor Road, through Dec. 31. Information: (631) 692-6820 or cshlibrary.org.

A version of this article appears in print on December 4, 2011, on Page LI10 of the New York edition with the headline: Over Here! An Exhibition of Patriotic World War I Posters. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe